Mark Twain himself has said, “Only one thing is impossible for God: To find any sense in any copyright law on the planet”. This message sings true even today with the world’s current laws. Mark Twain would have no knowledge that his statement would be a sort of prophecy. Today’s copyright laws prevent the creativity of content creators all around the world. With laws prohibiting sharing of media and contradicting the laws of fair use, we as individuals are prevented from cultural exchanges and collection of creative ideas.
In the modern-day world, it is currently accepted and perfectly legal to bring a copy of musical cd to another’s home, however digitally sharing a copy of the cd’s musical files is considered highly illegal and can result in five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 dollars. Did the individual who copied this cd intend to steal the creator’s work? It may be noted as well, that such fines do not at all reflect the actual damages, which may in fact be none. Sharing of creative works has always been the keystone to cultural exchange and understanding, so can society claim such acts as illegal …show more content…
The European Commission conducted a study on the impacts of digitally sharing media and found little to no impact on music sales, if not more. While sharing does not replace actual sales, it is believed without it the sales of albums shared would have gone down around 2%. Similarly, another argument against sharing of media and fair use is that it creates plagiarism of many original works. While this indeed may be true, there is the possibility of this in any other method of delivering media to the masses. Any human being can carry out a criminal act, but it is my belief we must work to identify such crimes and protect ourselves from them. Such crimes of plagiarism should not be blamed on free sharing of the
In the modern-day world, it is currently accepted and perfectly legal to bring a copy of musical cd to another’s home, however digitally sharing a copy of the cd’s musical files is considered highly illegal and can result in five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 dollars. Did the individual who copied this cd intend to steal the creator’s work? It may be noted as well, that such fines do not at all reflect the actual damages, which may in fact be none. Sharing of creative works has always been the keystone to cultural exchange and understanding, so can society claim such acts as illegal …show more content…
The European Commission conducted a study on the impacts of digitally sharing media and found little to no impact on music sales, if not more. While sharing does not replace actual sales, it is believed without it the sales of albums shared would have gone down around 2%. Similarly, another argument against sharing of media and fair use is that it creates plagiarism of many original works. While this indeed may be true, there is the possibility of this in any other method of delivering media to the masses. Any human being can carry out a criminal act, but it is my belief we must work to identify such crimes and protect ourselves from them. Such crimes of plagiarism should not be blamed on free sharing of the